MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2015: Live Music Now Scotland

Congratulations to Live Music Now Scotland who have been nominated in Community Project of the Year sponsored by Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2015. Vote now!

We asked Live Music Now Scotland Live Music Now Scotland of Live Music Now Scotland the following questions.

Tell us about yourself
Live Music Now Scotland supports talented young professional musicians in performing and training opportunities while taking inspirational live music experiences to a wide audience. Live Music Now Scotland selects emerging professional musicians who combine exceptional performing skills with special qualities of insight, generosity of spirit and flexibility. Our musicians go out into the community to perform for older people and children with special educational needs, including workshops and song sessions in early years centres, primary schools and care homes for the elderly.

Why are you involved in Scottish music?
The joy that live music brings in a moment can be transformative over time. Live Music Now Scotland delivers programmes tailored to participants whose lives are challenged due to disability, illness, poverty or social disadvantage. It is our ambition to bring live music to more people, achieving greater beneficial impact through sustained involvement. It is our role to inspire young professional musicians to use their talents for the benefit of those who are otherwise excluded from the joy of live music.

Any particular career highlights?
Live Music Now Scotland has been involved in a number of varied and enjoyable projects over the past 30 years, since the Scottish branch of the charity was founded. Some highlights from this year alone include dementia friendly concerts at Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling, where Gaelic singer Ainsley Hamill performed traditional Scottish mouth music and ‘waulking’ songs for people living with dementia and their carers. We also presented a daily series of free lunchtime concerts open to all during the Edinburgh Festival at the National Museum of Scotland, including ‘Free Fringe’ performances from Orkney fiddle, piano and step-dance duo, Kristan Harvey & Tina Rees, song, step-dance and cello duo, Siobhan Miller & David Munn, and fiddle and Uileann pipes duo, Gráinne Brady & Ryan Murphy.

Traditional musician Marianne Fraser took part in a 10-week music residency at Fort Early Years Centre in Edinburgh, where she used English, Gaelic and Scots songs, as well as percussion, movement and dance to engage her audience of 1-2 year olds and their carers, while exploring the links between music and language development.
Scottish traditional musician Laura Grime completed a 3 month ‘Creative Futures’ residency in Mumbai, funded by Creative Scotland. Laura worked with young people in Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, in a project hosted by music venue BlueFROG. Laura also worked to develop the skills of outreach music leaders and music teachers in Mumbai.

After being awarded funding from Creative Scotland Youth Music Initiative, Live Music Now Scotland was also delighted to be able to develop ‘Traditional Tunes for Tiny People’. The project, which first piloted in 2011, exposes babies and infants to traditional Scottish songs and instrumental music from the very beginnings of their lives, encouraging and supporting parents and carers to sing to them at home, and has already proved a great success with babies, toddlers and their parents and carers.
Live Music Now Scotland was also delighted with the announcement at the start of 2015 that Carol Main, director of the charity, was awarded an MBE for services to music.

What are your plans for the future?
The Live Music Now Scotland calendar is always packed with workshops, residencies, and performances, designed to engage the community. We will continue our ongoing ‘Emerging Artists’ series of concerts at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, designed to showcase talented musicians in the early stages of their professional careers, including a performance from Scots singers Robyn Stapleton and Claire Hastings, both winners of BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year, who will sing Robert Burns songs as well as other traditional songs.

Our ‘Time for Traditional Tunes’ and ‘Traditional Tunes for Tiny People’ initiatives will also continue, engaging both younger and older audiences in live music, with performances in retirement homes, nurseries and hospitals.

Live Music Now Scotland – what we do from Live Music Now on Vimeo.

If you would like to come along to the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards in Dundee’s Caird Hall call the Caird Hall box office on (01382) 434940 or buy online.